LARPing

Five bucks says that the first comment about this post will be something along the lines of:

HEY, THIS ISN’T NEW, I SAW THIS MONTHS AGO! ! !

And that comment would be absolutely, positively, 95% accurate. This is pretty much the same as those clips and teaser trailers that came out last year. The difference is that this is the first OFFICIAL TRAILER. The Knights of Badassdom has suffered that dreaded Hollywood fate involving a change in producer after filming wrapped. It doesn’t happen all that often, but when it does it usually spells long delays and re-edits.

The cast is a who’s who of Nerdy favorites. Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones), Summer Glau (Firefly), Ryan Kwanten (True Blood), and Danny Pudi (Community) are all LARPers (Live Action Roleplaying) who accidentally summon an evil succubus demon played by Margarita Levieva (Adventureland) and not only have to clean up the mess, but deal with the consequences.

The material I’ve seen so far leads me to believe that the movie is laughing with LARP-ers and not directly at them. There has to be more than a few LARP enthusiasts in the NerdBastards audience, what’s your take on this trailer? Is it all in fun or do you feel picked on?

The bad news in all this is that there is STILL no release date announced for the movie, Perhaps this “Official release” of the trailer marks the beginning of the marketing machine behind the movie.

I think it is safe to say if you are visiting this site, you have probably felt the thrill of making the critical saving throw and following it up with a death dealing natural 20. What if I told you that you could have that feeling and save the world all at the same time! Well, a newly appointed Norwegian minister by the name of Heikki Holmas feels that role playing, both table top and live-action, can be a force for social change.

Holmas has just been appointed the minister of international development for Norway and is a sell confessed lifelong RPG’er, evening helping found the nations gamer convention RegnCon. So how does calculating THAC0 help the planet? It was an experience he had LARPing a WWII scenario that gave him the idea.

“It was an incredible staging of 1942. We had people dressed like German soldiers, driving around in amphibious vehicles. It was totally … it was an amazing LARP. I’ve never before or since felt such a total feeling of isolation in society. Isolation, and the despair that grabs you when you realized that your German masters didn’t give a s–t.”

What soon developed afterwards is his theory that role playing can be used to help people wrap their heads around complex social and political issues.

“RPGs can be extremely relevant in putting people in situations they’re unfamiliar with, Save the Children have their refugee games. I have friends in Bergen who’ve run human-rights RPGs. But you have to be professional. You create real emotions when you play role-playing games, real emotions that stick.”

“That’s kind of the slightly scary aspect of role-playing games, which has to be considered. At the same time, it’s what makes it possible for RPGs to change the world. LARP can change the world, because it lets people understand that humans under pressure may act differently than in the normal life, when you’re safe.”

You have to admit, he does make a good point. Running through a fictitious scenario backed up with some real emotion could act as a huge learning experience for politicians and policy makers. Hell, the military has war games and isn’t that just role playing?

So, maybe one day all the diplomats and dignitaries of the world with gather at the United Nations on a Friday night to roll a few dice, but I swear if anyone them touches the Mountain Dew in the fridge I will cut them. It’s mine. I put my name on it.

The guys over at Sketch Empire put together this video about some pretty lame Larping. Not that LARP is lame, just these guys. The video could easily be about some lame gamers, or some other geeky hobby. The interplay between these guys is what makes it funny.

“Darccock the Barbarian of the hills”

“You mean curtain rod?”

These guys really capture the over the top actions of nerds (our people) who just have to cross that line when they come to it.

The Knights of Badassdom looks to be the best flick about nerds doing nerdy things since 2008’s Fanboys. And this was one’s got Summer Glau in a short chainmail skirt kicking a lot of LARPer ass, catapulting this film into a whole ‘nother region of nerd fantasy.

The Knights of Badassdom follows a group of LARP-ers who convince a non-LARPing friend nursing a broken heart to come along in order to get his mind off his breakup. Then they accidently summon an evil, demon succubus and have to become to heroes they pretend to be. Hey, at least I doubt he’s thinking about his old girlfriend anymore.

Today at Comic-Con director Joe Lynch revealed the first trailer, and now, thanks to the film’s Facebook page, it’s on the webz for all us sorry bastards not at the con of all cons.

Doesn’t everything about this movie look fantastic!? First of all, what a amazing cast; Peter Dinklage, Ryan Kwanton, Summer Glau, Steve Zahn and Danny Pudi. Its like someone read my mind and created the perfect guild of awesome famous people. Plus, think how much Dinklage’s Game of Thrones, Kwanton’s True Blood, Glau’s Firefly, and Pudi’s Community fame are going to help launch this movie? It might even make LARPing cool. Or…uhh, yeah no, it won’t, who am I kidding.

In an interview with Lynch he said he made all his actors go to LARPing school to learn how to do it right, and I’m betting it will show in the film. Plus, who wants to take bets that most of those extras are LARPers themselves.

Prepare yourself boys and girls. Stop creeping Craigslist and use these suggestions to find the nerd love of your life. Of course, I would say NerdBastards.com, but we don’t have a dating section, and an email to someone you don’t know can be more than a little difficult, especially for you shy nerds out there! I have hand picked 10 awesome ways to meet girls, and I can promise that with the suggestions from our site, you will find the hot ones. We’ve got girls that will be dressed up as your favorite fantasy hotties, and girls that have D20 games down pat. Live ways and online ways. There is someone for everyone out there, and who deserves it more than we do? …uh, no one! Admit it, as nerds (and bastards 😉 ), we are pretty much the most awesome people on the planet. Get your courage up, and save some money because NO girl likes a guy who can’t afford his own playing cards! Many of these ways have been tested by some of my closest friends (yeah they’re all nerds, I’m cool like that) Some of these ways, some of you might see as LAWLing more than looking, but we have a wide selection, so you go nerds. Have no fear! The Top Ten is Here!

Ah, the wonderful world of LARP, how I would love to try it once but probably don’t have the physical endurance for it due to not chewing my food and pretty much swallowing it. If ya ever wonder how LARPing works or anything, it seems that Team Dynamite Lazer Beam has all the cartoon/comics that you might need to find your answer. It’s a Live Journal site filled with many entertaining posts so check it out when ya have the time. It seems that Team Dynamite Lazer Beam has created an image for LARPer’s of the DOs and DON’Ts. Check out a larger size of the image after the jump and also, if your able to, try checking out some real LARPing action in your area, ya might just get interested in to doing it. (more…)

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